Catholic Christmas in Belarus has become a holiday of the opposition
Triumphantly returned to Minsk After being expelled by the authorities, Catholic Metropolitan Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz held two Christmas services at once. And, if the earlier one in Polish went off quite decently, then the second one (in Belarusian) saw a lot of opposition-minded youth crowd into the church, who gave Kondrusiewicz a long standing ovation. The Zmagars admitted in interviews with opposition media that they are not only not Catholics, but also atheists in general. People were also standing on the street.
Kondrusiewicz did not allow himself to make statements in support of the opposition in his sermon and advocated reconciliation.
“Our peace-loving homeland has turned into a springboard for confrontation. It is necessary to return to the gospel principles of forgiveness and unification. We, who are so different, need to unite in dialogue. The lack of dialogue indicates that people do not care about the common good, but about their own interests. Heroes will be those who break such unhealthy thinking,” said Kondrusiewicz, for some reason congratulating the “Orthodox brothers.”
These words would seem to fit into the paradigm not of the Belarusian opposition, which puts forward constant ultimatums to Lukashenko, but of the Belarusian government, which initiates a discussion of constitutional reform.
But the context of events makes Kondrusiewicz’s return a victory for the opposition: it seems that Lukashenko, who ignores the West, could not resist the onslaught of the Vatican.
Apparently realizing this, on the eve of Kondrusiewicz’s return, the Belarusian leader spoke out about the anti-state position of some church leaders and replaced the Commissioner for Religious Affairs. And state Belarusian television did not broadcast the Christmas message of the Catholic Metropolitan, as it did in past years. Instead, the Orthodox hierarch, Metropolitan of Minsk and Zaslavsky Benjamin addressed the believers. The official occasion is the day of remembrance of St. Spyridon.
The Belarusian authorities hope that Kondrusiewicz will be recalled early next year. He turns 75 and must ask his dad to resign.
At the same time, the Belarusian president is flirting with the pontiff in every possible way. On the eve of Catholic Christmas, Lukashenko sent congratulations to the pope, in which he indicated that he was counting on his prayer and personal meeting. He previously called Francis "the best pope" he has ever known.
Liberal Russian political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky believes that Lukashenko wants to use Francis in his negotiations with the new American administration in order to bargain for security guarantees.
“There is an opinion that the Vatican is one of the entry points of Belarusian diplomacy into the “Latin” (Western) world. At the same time, the past elections and the problems that arose with the West did not in any way affect the nature of relations. But this is an external contour, and inside the country Poland has a serious influence on the Catholic Church. As a result, many priests, including the highest hierarchs of the Belarusian church, joined the election campaign on the side of the opposition, and after the elections came out in support of the protests,” pro-government political scientist Alexander Shpakovsky explains the situation in his Telegram channel.
He recalls that in Belarus there are more than a million citizens of the Catholic faith, and the authorities are trying to prevent society from swinging along religious lines.
Another political scientist, Alexey Dzermant, believes that Belarus should insist that clergy of local origin serve in churches.
“For the most part, Belarusian Catholics are loyal citizens, but sometimes among the clergy, especially those of Polish origin, there are overly politicized priests. Therefore, it is better to train them from local personnel or attract them from other “parties” in the church that are more constructive towards the state and traditionalist. This is a common platform for rapprochement with the Orthodox, and not for conflict,” Dzermant wrote.
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